Review of U2: Danger At Dunwater

Danger at Dunwater is the second in the series starting with The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, and continues the playful alliteration. It continues with the setting of Saltmarsh, and concerns a reconnissance mission for low-level (1-4) characters to a lizard man lair after the discover that they have been purchasing large quantities of weapons. The production is TSR standard, a thirty=two page booklet with a carstock two-panel cover. The cover and interior artwork is appropriate and is actually quite good.

The Introduction ensures the already-involved PCs will engage in a discovery mission in local swamplands with a 5,000 gp inducement from the town council. The hefty introduction also provides significant notes on "what is really going on", possible resolutions contrary to the typical "kill the monsters, steal their stuff, go up a level" and a brief discussion of the politics of the lizard men. This is followed by a description of the journey to the lair, the environment and details on one particular encounter.

The bulk of the module is a rather sensibly designed, but otherwise quite dull, lizard man lair along with the various "embassies" of visiting sea-creatures. The problem is, unless the PCs are entirely stupid and/or crazed with bloodlust, most of the detail is irrelevant. There is little chance of them engaging in the original plan of reconnaissance (as probable entrances are defended), with negotiations being far more probable; indeed, a party with any semblance of intelligence and skill will find themselves in diplomatic maneuvers within the first ten minutes of play after entering the lair proper. Within only the possibility of introducing one other serious encounter after this (never smile at a crocodile - or its master), silver-tongued characters, especially those with a Druid and a Paladin in the party, will make very short work of the negotiations.

This is rather impoverished execution of a good idea; whilst the central thematic premise of the module is thinking, talking and negotiation the module isn't actually designed to do this and is laid out with the assumption of a standard dungeon-crawl with swampish wilderness excursions. As a sequel to the excellent Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, it pushes the overall storyline along quite adequately, but without sufficient internal substance or complexity. Stylistically, it is very good. In terms of substance, it is surprisingly quite poor given the excellent work of the authors in the preceeding publication.